• 131 million days were lost due to sickness absences in the UK in 2013

• Minor illnesses were the most common reason given for sickness absence but more days were lost to back, neck and muscle pain than any other cause

• Mental health problems such as stress, depression and anxiety contributed to a significant number of days of work lost in 2013, at 15.2 million days

• These mental health problems exclude things such as manic depression and schizophrenia which are grouped as serious mental health problems and accounted for just 1% of the reasons given for sickness

• Sickness absence rates have fallen for both men and women since 1993 with men consistently having a lower sickness absence rate than women

• Women were 42% more likely to have time off work through sickness than males

• As people get older they are more likely to develop health problems and sickness absence rates tend to increase with age, around 2.0% and 2.8% of hours were lost to sickness for those workers aged 35 to 49 and 50 to 64, respectively

• Sickness absence has fallen for all age groups since 1993, but has fallen least for those aged 65